Morrison Wins Endorsement For Scc Seat

RICHMOND — Senate Democrats ended a stalemate Wednesday by endorsing former Newport News delegate Theodore V. Morrison for a seat on the State Corporation Commission.

The endorsement came a day after the senators failed in two tie votes to agree on a candidate to fill the unexpired SCC term of Elizabeth B. Lacy, who was named to the Virginia Supreme Court.

FOR THE RECORD - Published correction ran Friday, January 20, 1989An article in Thursday's Daily Press incorrectly reported that the House of Delegates had voted to support Theodore V. Morrison for a seat on the State Corporation Commission. The Democratic caucus of the House voted to endorse Morrison Tuesday. The full house voted 98-0 Thursday to elect Morrison to the post.

Morrison, who was working in his Newport News law office when the vote was announced, said he was pleased and humbly grateful with the outcome.

Morrison said he didn't make any efforts personally to turn around the initial Senate vote, but acknowledged that several of his friends in both the House and Senate worked overnight on his behalf.

He declined to specify who, but admitted that House Speaker A.L. Philpott of Bassett took an intense interest in his candidacy, and was among those who initially persuaded him to run for the seat.

"It was like, `win one for the Gipper,'" Morrison said, referring to the intensity exhibited by Philpott.

Morrison acknowledged that once in the race for the $83,713-a-year post, he didn't want to lose. "I reluctantly got into this thing in the first place," he said. "But once in it, I hoped to be successful. I didn't want to be defeated by anything that was a bum rap."

The "bum rap" Morrison was referring to was his membership in the James River Country Club, from which he plans to resign. The club's membership practices have been criticized by black and Jewish leaders in recent months as discriminatory.

Morrison said he doesn't believe his membership was a factor in the Senate's initial vote on his candidacy. He also stressed that he did not resign his membership to secure the judgeship.

He said he explained to the Courts of Justice committees during executive sessions Tuesday that he had planned since mid-summer to resign his membership, but held on to try to enlist black members in the club. Among those he asked to join was state Sen. Robert C. Scott of Newport News.

"I thought maybe I could do some good by resolving the problem ... I was trying to do what was suggested and work to change it. I met with no resistance within the club, but I just couldn't get anyone to join," he said.

After the vote Tuesday, he said, no one ever suggested to him that his club membership hurt him. "I just really don't want people to think I was a segregationinst in a white enclave."

He said he doesn't know why the Senate initially did not endorse him, although he said there may be some truth to suggestions that Democratic senators wanted to teach him a lesson for votes he had taken in the past against their legislation.

"It may even be that some of them thought, `We'll show Good Old Ted a lesson,'" he said.

Late Tuesday and up until the 4:30 p.m. secret balloting Wednesday, speculation buzzed among lawmakers, many of whom had assumed their former Democratic colleague, although opposed by two Richmond lawyers for the job, would breeze through the selection formality.

Endorsement by the Democrats assures appointment to the post since the party enjoys overwhelming control of both houses. The House of Delegates had unanimously voted for Morrison on Tuesday.

The Senate voting had been postponed Tuesday after two ballots failed to produce a win ner. The other candidates were Richmond attorneys Hullihen W. Moore and O. Randolph Rollins.

On Wednesday, the senators unanimously endorsed Morrison after first voting 21-9 for him, with Moore receiving the nine votes.

Sen. Benjamin J. Lambert III of Richmond, who was one of four Senate Democrats who did not vote Tuesday, said he was the target of some of this campaigning between the two votes.

"I got a few calls and a few people came up. But I had told Ted three weeks ago I would vote for him. I did vote for him," said Lambert.

A black, Lambert said that he hopes some good can come out of the Senate's struggle over Morrison in the form of a message about membership in discriminatory clubs.

"I think it sends a message, a very strong one. I think the legislature has to do something, especially now that on the federal level judges can't belong to these clubs," he said.

Scott said selection of Virginia judges in the future will address this issue as a matter of policy if a subcommittee's recommendations are adopted.

Scott, a member of the Courts of Justice subcommittee, said the recommendations include adding a question regarding discriminatory private club membership in the questionnaire that is provided by the committee. The standard would apply to both sitting judges up for reappointment and prospective judges.

The committee also will be asked to adopt a policy that membership in an "invidiously discriminatory" club will disqualify a judicial candidate, Scott said.

The private club controversy has held up endorsement of about two dozen judges up for reappointment, including New port News Circuit Judge Douglas M. Smith.

Smith's reappointment is opposed by a local chapter of the NAACP because of his membership in the James River club.